He became a band member by complete chance and now author Jon Ronson is lending his musical knowledge to the silver screen.

The Welsh writer replaced Mark Radcliffe in the Frank Sidebottom group in the UK in the '80s as a keyboard player. But he didn't know any of their songs when he volunteered.

Still, he stuck it out for three years and now has been enlisted by friend and film-maker Lenny Abrahamson to help with the final cut of the movie Frank, starring Michael Fassbender.

Jon was one of the many literary names in the capital this week as part of the Dublin Writers Festival. He held a lecture at Liberty Hall on Tuesday evening and when giving a brief insight into his time in the band, called out to the audience for his pal Lenny to stand up and greet the crowd.

But to his disappointment – and to the amusement of the guests – Lenny was missing in action. The lecture was chaired by RTÉ's Kevin Gildea.

Best-selling authors Dan Brown, Dawn O'Porter and Caitlin Moran also featured as part of the festival programme in the capital this week, with Dawn confirming that she will join husband Chris O'Dowd this summer for filming of the third season of his Roscommon-based television hit, Moone Boy.